Before there were people, there were only the animals and the birds.
And in those days, the day and the night were exactly the same. One
time, when Rabbit was going along, he began to think about the days and
the nights and how they were alike and how there wasn't enough light.
And then, in a loud voice, he said, "There is not enough light. I can
not see where I'm going. I need more light."

Just then, Rabbit heard a voice, and it said, "There is plenty of
light." Rabbit could not see who was talking and so he called out "Who is
there, who is speaking to me?" "It is I. It is Owl. And I say there
is enough light in the world." Then Rabbit said, "Well I say there is
not enough light, and I will call the animals together. We will have a
council. And I will ask them. I will ask them if they think there is
enough light and they will agree with me and then you will know that
there is not enough light in the world." But then Owl said, "I will
invite all the birds of the air. We will join in the council and then
you will see that the birds will agree with me and then you will note
that there is enough light in the world."

Well, all the animals and all the birds came together and they all sat
around in a great circle and waited for Rabbit and Owl to speak.
Rabbit stepped forward and said "There is not enough light in the
world. We need more light." Then Owl stepped forward and then he said,
"There is too much light. We do not need more light."

Well, with that, all the animals and birds began to talk to one
another. Bear said that there was way too much light, that he liked to
sleep in the dark and, if there were more light, it would interrupt his
rest. Some of the birds said that they wanted more light so that they
could see to gather twigs for their nests. Racoon said that he agreed
with Owl. Racoon did not want light. Frog said that there was
enough light, and that he couldn't sing well when there was too much
light. Then Buffalo said that, with so little light, he couldn't find
enough grass and that he was often hungry. Then all of the animals and
birds began to talk at once. Some of them agreed with Owl and some of
them agreed with Rabbit.

Finally, Rabbit and Owl decided that they would settle the argument by
seeing which of them had the strongest medicine. And whoever had the
greatest power, well, that person would have his way. So Owl began to
say "Night, night, night, night." And then Rabbit spoke faster, "Light,
light, light, light." And then Owl spoke even faster, "Night, night,
night, night." Rabbit's friends warned him, "Rabbit, do not say Owl's
word, or it will be night all the time." And Owls' friends warned him,
"Owl, be careful. Do not say Rabbit's word or there will be light all
the time."

Owl was saying "Night, night, night, night, night, night, night...."
when he heard his friends say the word "light". And he accidentally
said, "Night, night, night, night, light ... oh, oh," said Owl. But it
was too late, he had already said the word "light".

And so it was that Rabbit won. And since that time, the day has had
lots of light. But because some of the animals could not hunt or sleep
with so much light, Rabbit declared that part of the time would be
night after all. And that is why, in these days, we have both day and
night.

Background was created by Brad Snowder of the
Western Washington University Planetarium .
Used with permission.
The raven is a head-dress produced by the Haida tribe.
It is owned by the Department of Anthropology,
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institutes. Washington D.C. The photographer is Don Eiler.